Freeze Frame

Art Imitates Life. Life Imitates Movies.

My life displayed on a fridge is colorful and balanced- part art, part film, and part family.

After taking this photo, I realized that you can really learn a lot about my life from my fridge. Everything I cherish is displayed right in the heart of my kitchen. This isn't a surprise to me. Whether it's conversations at the table with my boyfriend, doing homework with my son or cooking homemade vegetarian meals for the three of us, we spend most of our time in the kitchen when we are home.
My life displayed on a fridge is colorful and balanced- part art, part film, and part family. I value art but can’t afford it, so I collect small pieces from art shows (business cards, postcards, etc.) and frame them myself. None of these pieces are hanging on the door, but most of the magnets were made by me as well. I cut out quotes, pictures, and symbols that I like and stick them to magnet strips. Instant fridge function and almost free! The best one is a quote from The Dalai Lama, “Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon”, though a close second is “I haven’t had my coffee yet, don’t make me kill you” (two different viewpoints on the world existing peacefully for once…).
My favorite visual artist, Michael Birawer, does graffiti style paintings of local places of interest, I have a piece of the first club I ever saw a concert at in Minneapolis (First Avenue!) and the new TCF Bank Stadium that my employer built. Mixed in between these postcards of art are photos of my son on various adventures we’ve taken together. I love seeing him grow up right before my eyes; I could never take down the photo of him swimming at age two with his perfect toddler curls. There is even a special place next to her favorite great-grandson for my grandma’s photo. She passed away a few years ago and had a very close bond to my son.
One can definitely guess my favorite films and my favorite cities from my fridge. Take a look, can you guess? The numbero uno movie in my book has to be The Crow; I even named my son after the lead actor. It saddens me that both Brandon Lee and Frida Kahlo are no longer with us, so it seems fitting that they hang out together on my fridge. Frida may be my favorite female artist, but my favorite male artist is my talented boyfriend. He fills my life with art daily, making me “recycled art” out of everything from restaurant menus of places we've gone together, beer labels from my favorite brews, to gum packages made into skulls. I have drawings and sculptures all over my apartment, so a few places on the fridge are always open for his latest creation.
There are a couple of functional items on my fridge- my son’s baseball schedule, Chewbacca grocery list pad, and a skull cookie jar. Everything in my life makes me happy, so it really is no wonder that my fridge reflects that!